Carl Niehaus gives ANC an ultimatum: Pay your debts or face insolvency proceedings

Outspoken ANC member Carl Niehaus has written a letter of demand to the governing party, telling it to honour its liabilities with 10 days or he will institute legal proceedings to declare the ANC insolvent.

This is due to the party’s failure to pay staff salaries on time and their Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), provident fund and tax deductions to authorities.

The letter of demand from Mabuza Attorneys, dated 21 October 2021, was addressed to ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte.

“This letter sets in motion a well-considered legal process to declare the ANC insolvent in the event of it being unable to honour its debts and liabilities to staff and other creditors,” Niehaus said in a statement issued by him and MacDonald Mathabe, who works in the office of suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule.

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“It is expected for the ANC to prove that its assets exceed its liabilities. In the event that the ANC fails to do so, and fails to honour its debts within the 10-day deadline (counting from today [Thursday] when the letter of demand was sent), proceedings will be instituted without any further notice to declare the ANC insolvent, and for it to be sequestrated.”

The threat to institute insolvency proceedings against the ANC follows Niehaus and Mathabe’s complaint lodged this week with the Office of the Public Protector against government agencies that failed to execute their legal duties to hold the party accountable for not paying its obligations.

The pair, along with some aggrieved ANC employees, also laid criminal charges against the ANC and its top-six leaders in September over the same matter.

Will ANC be deregistered as a party?

Niehaus said in the event of the ANC being declared bankrupt, the party would no longer be a viable political party that complies with the electoral laws of the country.

The letter from Mabuza Attorneys stated: “Failing compliance with the above demand and deadline, our clients will institute proceedings to declare the ANC insolvent and to require its sequestration, without any further notice to you.

“Other additional steps which may follow will include approaching the Independent Electoral Commission [IEC] for the dissolution and/or deregistration of the ANC on the grounds that it is no longer a viable political party which complies with the electoral laws of the Republic of South Africa.”

Niehaus said their decision to send a letter of demand to the ANC was a “sad consequence” of the acts of serious financial maladministration and mismanagement by senior ANC leaders and managers.

He accused them of failing to uphold the law and bringing the party into “disrepute and on the brink of destruction”.

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